Blog
Words. Wisdom. Winners.
I am scared
I am scared
Not because I have witnessed the result of the decisions
Not because I know exactly how much it will take
Not because I have failed before and know what it feels like
Rather I have heard how it sounds
I have been told what failure is like
I have seen it from a distance. Not happen to me. But to others
And that isn’t a good feeling
We wouldn’t believe most things unless we see it for ourselves
Yet, we conveniently imagine failure of others as ours
Ask yourself
Are you scared because you have SEEN yourself as a loser? Or you have simply IMAGINED yourself as one?
Noisemakers are important
Only 5% create noise
Only 5% create ruckus
Only 5% break the law
Only 5% are brutal, unsympathetic, cruel and don’t care
They don’t necessarily win in the end, or get their way. And even if they do, it’s short lived and gives a false impression of victory.
But they alter the path
They force the 95% to take notice
They force the 95% to work harder
They force the 95% to think beyond the normal,the obvious
And that’s why, even though the noise makers are not ideal, they are necessary.
Next time you see one
Make sure you are not one of them
Make sure you don’t become them
Make sure you see beyond them, to see how they can help alter the path for the good.
Alter your path, for the good.
The Curse of Intelligence, or why do conflicts happen at work?
Three reasons
Misalignment of incentives: happens 20% of the cases
The conflicting parties are not aligned towards the same goals. One has been told to increase sales at all costs. One has been told to reduce costs whatever it takes.
Managers are almost always to be blamed.
Leadership is the root cause here. Rather poor communication architecture within the leadership.
Doesn’t care about alignment: happens 5% of the cases
This guy is someone you should fire. They are optimizing for their life. Their goals. They don’t care about anything else. You know such people, don’t you? We met one in The Dark Knight as well.
People come up with solutions. Not problems: happens 75% of the time
I call it “The Curse of Intelligence”
Intelligent people have been trained to solve. To fix things. And to not stop until fixed.
So the moment they encounter a problem, they begin to think of solutions. Mostly half baked, I would argue. Considering it’s coming from an individual without any collective discussion or reasoning.
And it’s the solution that’s proposed. Not the problem to be fixed.
Suddenly, the discussion is focusing itself on the solution. And whether the solution should be implemented. And arguments are ensuing on the worthiness of the solution. No one is asking “what is it that we are trying to solve here?”
The problem is not the focus. Its the solution
Classic – outcome vs output.
“Let’s put banners all across the site because” – solution
“I want new merchants to get visibility so that they have a shot at selling” – problem
“We need more money for marketing” – solution
“We are not retaining enough customers we are acquiring” – problem
“I need a raise” – solution
“I am getting married and my expenses are set to increase” – problem
“I want to quit” – solution
“I am not challenged by my work” – problem
Do yourself a favor the next time.
Walk in with the problem.
Make the effort to describe it well.
Make the effort to identify the grief it is causing.
Make the effort to pick the metric to track
And let the solution be discussed. Not proposed.
Fall in love with the problem. Not the solution.
The most important question every entrepreneur should ask (and rarely does)
Why hasn’t it been done already?
Unless one does not go through the logical and emotional journey of discovering this answer, you are almost always destined to regret going down this path without the diligence it deserved.
There are 3 possible responses to this question
- It’s been done, I just don’t know of it: Happens 20% of the cases in my experience
- Spend whatever time you can, in finding about them.
- Experience them as a customer
- Experience them as a competitor
- Talk to people who have experienced them
- Don’t settle before you know everything about what is it that they are doing and how you are going to be different
- Its been done, and it failed: Happens 79% of the cases in my experience
- Find out why it failed, as if your life depends on it. And it does.
- You will be fascinated by what you find – market conditions, unfavorable economics, market size, customer adoption, technology non-readiness.
- The goal here is to make your solution work, when their failed. Doing it better is not good enough. Repeat – Doing it better is NOT GOOD ENOUGH
- Find out why it failed, as if your life depends on it. And it does.
- Its never been done before: Happens 1% of the cases. In my experience its never happened
- I am, on an average, no smarter than the world
- So what I have thought of – is something that millions would have already thought of
- Don’t give yourself more importance than you deserve. Go back to points 1 and 2 above
The sharpest, most successful brains will tell you to not care two fucks about the world when starting up. Let your passion be your force.
The same brains would have spent countless hours figuring why the world is the way it is. And how, what they are doing, is going to change the way the world is.
Dont
Don’t be around people that bring you down
Don’t be around people that make you feel useless
Don’t be around people that look for reasons to point your mistakes
Don’t be around people that do not know how to respect people below them
Don’t be around people that don’t say sorry
Don’t be around people that don’t respond when you say sorry
Don’t be around people that say “I told you so”
Don’t be around people that mock your decisions when they don’t pan out well
Don’t be around people that consider your success as “you got lucky”
Don’t be around people that show you down in a crowd
Don’t be around people that aren’t happy when you are
Don’t be around people that don’t believe in you
Don’t be around people that believe in you only when you succeed
Don’t be around such people just because you can’t be with yourself
Don’t be such people yourself
The thing about Wild Bets
Here is the deal about wild bets.
They are wild for a reason.
If one knew what were to happen, they wouldn’t be wild anymore. They wouldn’t even be a bet.
So stop attaching a probability of success to them. Don’t try to tame them.
By the same measure, lack of conviction instantly kills any possibility of success.
Wild bets thrive on irrational belief. Don’t doubt them. Keep them wild.
Choices you make
March 2014
I missed my connecting flight from Amsterdam to Delhi because the Seattle Amsterdam flight was delayed.
The next one was after 16 hours
I was given meal coupons and a fake apology.
I chose not to accept it. Asked for a 24hr visa instead to step out.
It was 7pm when I got the visa. My flight was at 6am.
I was dead tired. My mind told me to crash at a hotel. I chose to walk the streets of Amsterdam, clicking.
Went straight to the airport. My camera some 350 photos heavy.
June 2016
Jet Airways morning flight to Mumbai. Sleep was the easy option. I chose to read the inflight magazine instead.
Came across a photo contest that asked for pictures of Amsterdam. I have never reacted to these. But the images from that Amsterdam night had remained in my head. I chose to take a camera shot of the contest page.
July 2016
Was clearing my phone images. Came across the contest page image. Chose not to ignore it any further and submitted 2 of my favorite pics from that night.
October 2016
Jet Airways wrote in. I had won first prize.
I won.
And understood life yet again
Your choices are not driven by the result you want
Rather, you are the result of the choices you make
Cool or boring?
In the past 4 months, nearbuy has built merchant tech that has never been built before in India, and I would argue perhaps the world.
And I have spent the last month on the road showcasing this tech and gathering feedback. Investors, customers, merchants.
The response is usually that of astonishment and amazement.
“This is so cool”
“Is this even possible”
“When is this launching”
“Why are you giving it away for free. I will pay for it”
I also know, this tech is so bold and audacious, it might never work!
But it’s cool.
And people get it intuitively.
In the past 4 months we have also built out a notification tool (called Sonar, which I think is a great name).
Sonar is intelligent to know what notification to send to whom and when. And smart to know when it shouldn’t.
In less than 2 months, it accounts for 30% of our mobile app business.
But it’s boring. It’s detailed. It’s unsexy. It’s lines of code and hours of work. It isn’t visual.
But it works!
Being cool will always draw the crowds
Being boring will get the work done
You have to be both
At the same time
All the time!
Procrastination
What leads to procrastination?
Most social responses will center around laziness. The inertia to not move. The need to remain status quo.
Most internal reflections will discover that it’s the world’s judgement of the output that scares people.
If I do this now, it won’t change my image, as against doing it later.
I have to do this now, else my image will change. No choice.
Fear has led to more procrastination than laziness ever will
Yeah, but you also…
You didn’t call me
Yeah, but you also didn’t call me
You scored less
Yeah, but you also scored less
You hurt me
Yeah, but you also hurt me
You didn’t work to your full potential
Yeah, but you also didn’t
You don’t seem to be grateful
Yeah, but you also think the same way
You don’t think twice about the things you do
Yeah, but you also are quite reckless
Tell you what, this isn’t a competition.
Each time you counter your flaws by pointing to someone else, worse still the person opposite, who has the same flaw
Is each time you say no to accepting who you truly are.
Is each time you stop yourself from doing the right thing because someone in your opinion has legitimized the wrong thing.
Doing the right thing is not relative. It’s an absolute.
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